This is Radio Art

This is 4’33” recorded on the number 433 bus while travelling through the Mersey Tunnel on NO MUSIC DAY in 2007.

I take the number 433 bus through the Mersey Tunnel every day to work at the Foundation for Art & Creative Technology in Liverpool. Opened in 1971 as one of two tunnels under the River Mersey – the Admiralty banned bridges in case of future war - the Kingsway Tunnel was once closed to enable the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra to perform a free concert.

I sit on the 433 and listen to The Sounds of Hell, recorded by engineers in Siberia lowering microphones 14.4km down into the earth.

The 433 bus emerges into the sunlight and I see the billboard where, in 2005, I assisted artist Bill Drummond in launching his NO MUSIC DAY project (alandunn67.co.uk/piesnomusic.html). Silence in the tunnel.

The tunnel is void of clear radio or phone signals and taxi drivers try to tune into local stations with stronger signals. Mobile phones are redundant down here. Instead, we have to listen to music or stare at each other. Or to talk. Or listen to the sound of this silent between space.

Biography

Alan Dunn (b. 1967, Glasgow) was curator of The Bellgrove Station Billboard Project (Glasgow 1990-91), lead artist on the tenantspin project (FACT, Liverpool 2001-7) and recently produced the 10xCD opus The sounds of ideas forming. Through these projects Dunn has developed collaborative work with Bill Drummond, Douglas Gordon, Yoko Ono, Gerhard Richter, Philip Jeck, Pauline Oliveros, Brian Eno and the archives of John Cage and Andy Warhol. He currently lives and works in Liverpool and lectures at Leeds Beckett University.

www.alandunn67.co.uk